Name: The WikiLeaks Files
Rating: 4.6 (23 reviews)
Author: Julian Assange (introduction)

What’s in it for me? Find out what the Wikileaks files reveal about the United States and its foreign policy.

Since WikiLeaks went online in 2006, it has published hundreds of thousands of pages of classified material about international warfare, diplomacy and policy – especially related to the United States.

This, of course, has come to the great displeasure of the US government, which denounces WikiLeaks as a subversive organization that spreads lies and has taken the leaked files out of context. So what exactly do the WikiLeaks files reveal, and what do they tell us about the United States?

As it turns out, the WikiLeaks files have nothing positive to say, and these blinks will cover key findings like the United States’ war crimes and torture of prisoners.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

which magic word gets e-mails blocked by the Pentagon server;
how the CIA tried to make its practice of torture seem legitimate; and
how the United States avoids juridical investigations into its crimes.

The US government has attempted to contain and vilify WikiLeaks.

If you’ve heard of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, you likely also know that it’s a very controversial organization. But what exactly is WikiLeaks and why is it so divisive? Let’s delve in.

The story begins in 2006, when a network of hackers, programmers, activists and journalists, led by Australian hacker Julian Assange, established the WikiLeaks website. It was designed to be a platform for whistleblowers, which would allow them to upload documents anonymously. Squarely in WikiLeaks’ sights were shady, corrupt or illegal practices by governments, institutions and corporations.

Since then, its global profile has grown immensely. The website has disclosed some momentous revelations, with some of the most famous including information about mass electronic snooping carried out by the US National Security Agency (NSA).

WikiLeaks has, as of 2016, published 2,325,961 US State Department records – that’s about 2 billion words in total, which, if printed, would fill around 30,000 volumes. The records also showed that the State Department, the heart of American diplomacy, was placing a positive and optimistic sheen on policies that were causing devastation in other parts of the world.

What’s more, they had also budgeted more than $1 billion each year for “public diplomacy;” in other words, they were investing in propaganda.

For its part, the US government has actively worked against WikiLeaks. Both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations have condemned WikiLeaks, with former Vice President Joe Biden going as far as proclaiming Assange to be a “cyber-terrorist.” Since it first came to prominence, US governments have sought to suppress WikiLeaks and stop the public and researchers from using it.

For instance, the Library of Congress blocks access to the website, while the National Archives blocks searches for the term “Wikileaks” in its databases. In 2012, the Pentagon blocked e-mails containing the word “WikiLeaks” on its servers through an automated filter.

The International Studies Association (ISA) even forbade its members from using WikiLeaks material. With 6,500 members worldwide, including many professors in political science departments at major universities in the United States and abroad, that’s a pretty serious clampdown – and it’s all because WikiLeaks’ revelations about US policies are so damaging and revealing.

The United States has no respect for the rule of law and its conduct in war is dubious at best.

As renowned anthropologist Talal Asad says, war is a conflict waged by people of good character, for benign motives, when all other possible alternatives have been exhausted. In other words, it’s a last resort.

Successive US governments have always claimed their wars are just. And yet, as WikiLeaks has proved, the United States has time and again shown little respect for international law and has even committed war crimes to advance its agenda.

By weakening the International Criminal Court, the United States can avoid accountability.

In 2002, the Rome Statute established the International Criminal Court (ICC), which was ratified by 122 signatory countries.

The ICC has the authority to investigate individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. The idea was originally developed during a diplomatic conference in Rome in 1998.

The United States has made its economic interests those of the entire world.

Transnational forces govern the global economy. Big banks, the finance sector and the market all play their parts, but what determines their behavior? The simple answer is American imperialism.

The United States has long defined its imperial mission. First expressed in the country’s nineteenth-century doctrine of “manifest destiny,” the United States has since its earliest days aimed to spread and institutionalize capitalism throughout the globe.

Key ideas in The WikiLeaks Files